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Nonviolent Communication Training

•Introduction to NVC: Thursday, October 16 @ 7:00 pm

• Workshop I: Saturday, October 18, 10 am to 5 pm

• Workshop II: Sunday, October 19, 10 am to 5 pm

Join us for a weekend devoted to the art and practice of Nonviolent Communication. Our beloved instructor, Jared Finkelstein, returns to Hearthfire this month to share his wisdom, passion, and experience at three unique events: an introductory talk on Thursday, October 16, followed by two, full-day workshops on Saturday and Sunday.

Please email us at: be brilliant [at] hearthfire [dot] org to reserve a place at the event(s) you wish to attend. For the most in-depth experience, please consider registering for the entire sequence. With advance notice, Hearthfire offers sliding scale tuition and work-study opportunities to make our programs available to all. We suggest an exchange of $20 for the Introduction, and $100 for each of the workshop days. We will send a you a detailed confirmation letter.

What is Nonviolent Communication (NVC)?

Also called Compassionate Communication, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) has been described as a language of compassion, as a spiritual practice, and as a tool for positive social change. NVC is an embodied awareness practice that gives the practitioner very practical and do-able tools and perspectives to understand what triggers us, to take responsibility for our reactions, and to deepen our connection with ourselves and with others, for the purpose of creating a quality of connection where everyone’s needs are equally valued, and strategies to meet needs contribute to connection and peace.

NVC is based on a fundamental principle: Underlying all human actions are needs that people are seeking to satisfy, and understanding and acknowledging these needs can create a shared basis for connection, and cooperation.

Understanding each other at the level of our needs creates such connection because, at this deeper human level, the similarities between us outweigh the differences, giving rise to greater compassion. When we focus on needs, without interpreting or conveying criticism, blame, or demands, our deeper creativity flourishes, and solutions and healing arise that were previously blocked from our awareness. At this depth, conflicts and misunderstandings can be resolved with greater ease.

NVC was invented by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, an American psychologist. He is the founder and former Director of the Center for Nonviolent Communication, an international non-profit organization whose vision is a world where all people are getting their needs met and resolving their conflicts peacefully.

In this vision, people use Nonviolent Communication to create and participate in networks of worldwide life-serving systems in economics, education, justice, health care, and peace-keeping.

I would like us to create peace at three levels and have each of us to know how to do it. First, within ourselves. That is to know how we can be peaceful with ourselves when we’re less than perfect, for example. How we can learn from our limitations without blaming and punishing our self. If we can’t do that, I’m not too optimistic how we’re going to relate peacefully out in the world. Second, between people. Nonviolent Communication training shows people how to create peace within themselves and at the same time how to create connections with other people that allows compassionate giving to take place naturally. And third, in our social systems. To look out at the structures that we’ve created, the governmental structures and other structures, and to look at whether they support peaceful connections between us and if not, to transform those structures.

~ Marshall Rosenberg

About The Artist

Jared Finkelstein is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication who offers communication and conflict resolution training to Businesses, Community Organizations, Faith-Based Communities, Educational Institutions, Hospitals, Individuals, and Families. For 20 years Jared has explored ways to support deepening connection in and amongst communities. His experience includes workshop and retreat facilitation at conferences, camps, churches, and classrooms.

At the heart of the practice of Nonviolent Communication is the question how do we want to live with one another? Jared enjoys exploring ways to engage with that question. Collaboratively, and while modeling and practicing the form of Nonviolent Communication, he supports communities to invent and implement life-enriching whole systems, and practices for restorative justice.

Jared offers trainings in concrete skills of nonviolence that lead to reconciliation with ourselves, with our loved ones, and within and between our communities.